I read my hometown newspaper online. It's a pretty good way to keep up with at least highlights of what's happening where most of my family is, things they wouldn't necessarily think to tell me like which schools hired which new teachers for the fall, what upgrades are being done to city hall -- basically local news not directly related to my family. I generally read 4 sections: the obituaries, the police & courts section, letters to the editor and the news highlights.

I read the letters to the editor because sometimes it's a shouting match, but sometimes there are some thoughtful articles. Sometimes there are some thoughtful responses to shouting matches. Sometimes it's frustrating and/or annoying, but it always seems worth it somehow to see the things people from my hometown actually care about and how they express it. (I guess the letters to the editor are a sort of mini-blogging for the community; must be what people did before instant publishing.)

The news highlights fill me in on general town happenings and 'police & courts' is generally an easy way to keep up with the kids I graduated with... (Okay, so not all of them.) The obits I read because sometimes there are people whom everybody knows, but not everybody knows well. Just standing fixtures of the community whose funerals I may or may not have attended if I were in town, but whose passings distinctly affect the nature of the place. People I just assumed would always be there.

Reading the obituaries makes me think about a lot of things, though. A person's entire life is encapsulated to a few brief paragraphs and a list of survivors. The ones I know, I can fill in some of the gaps for myself. Others give only a fleeting impression of who this person was, what s/he did, what was important to him or her. More than an epitaph, but hardly a legacy.

I promise I'm not being morbid, but sometimes it makes me wonder what mine will say. I think the phrase that always rings hollow to me is "he was of the ____ belief," as though the faith of the person was as casual as his ice cream preference. "He was of the opinion that mint chocolate chip ranks above orange sherbet."

I don't want mine to say "she was of the church of Christ belief." Or "she attended the ____ church of Christ." Neither of those come close. I'm more of the sometimes waffling, always searching belief. I don't want just to "attend," either. I've been blessed enough to find a unique family of faith in the places I've lived; I want to do more than just "attend."

It won't matter, though, what mine says, really. The ones who know me will fill in the gaps for themselves; I guess it's my job to live in such a way that they've got good stuff to fill it with. The ones who don't probably won't really stop to think about it.